Pod squads
and stream teams

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

“The radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools, trying to anaesthetize the way you feel.” —Elvis Costello, before he wanted to be Burt Bacharach

Going on about how commercial radio has actually gotten more stagnant and predictable would be as redundant as the stations’ playlists, and while satellite radio proves to be infinitely better, it still seems to be finding its footing. For the real punk rock goods, you have to go streaming off the dial.

NYC’s WFMU.org has programming that’s almost always fucking incredible, no matter what kind of music you’re into, but for us tried and true rock ’n’ rollers, definitely worth checking out are the live stream of The Pat Duncan Show on Thursday nights between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., or Diane’s Kamikaze Fun Machine on Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Both shows are also archived on WFMU’s site, so you can tune in at any time. More killer live streaming radio can be found at www.live365.com, with their psychedelic and garage programming guaranteed to flip yer wig. For psych alone, punch shows like Consolidated Fuzz, Innersphere, Technicolor Web of Sound and Radio Eigekai Phantom24 (also featuring really demented current Japanese psych and other garage transmitting from Dementia 13) into Live365’s search function and really bug out.

I was recently rummaging through some podcasts and happily stumbled on locals DJ Pâté and Sweet Melo’s awesome Vente de Garage show, which you can get to at www.ventedegaragepodcast.blogspot.com. This week’s episode is called “Montreal Punk ’77,” and although they may be off by a couple of years, the episode looks back at some of Montreal’s earliest punk rock bands, like the Chromosomes, the Normals and the Electric Vomit, which features Mirror Motion Picture Purgatory illustrator and American Devices guitarist Rick Trembles. The Electric Vomit also recently released their 1979 demos with local label Garbage Bag Records, so you’ve officially been hipped.

In keeping with the “old punks never die, they just start working at the Mirror” theme, the podcast also features a great interview with 222’s singer and Mirror columnist Chris Barry, who chews the cud with yarns about having to record at gunpoint after he and his bandmates disagreed about the musical directions their “investors” wanted the band to take, and how a 16-year-old Barry was forced to “promote” the 222’s single by going to drag-queen shows and lip-synching to his songs while decked out in punky bondage wear—among other sordid tales.

Other high points on the podcast is a rare live recording of the New York Dolls with singer David Johansen proclaiming, “We love you Canadians,” before launching into “Pills,” plus some killer songs by Toronto’s ’77 punks the Viletones, Ottawa’s the Action (who incidentally were so punk they actually copped Cockney accents), Pretty Boy Floyd, Kim Fowley’s manufactured punks Venus and the Razorblades and more. Archives of six previous episodes feature a look at the greatest band to ever crawl forth from the garage, the Sonics, rare raw soul sides and a special on rockabilly’s feistiest feline, Wanda Jackson, are also up on the site, so tune in, turn on and freak out!